Most impressive phone apps

[beemerman2k]

In this new world of revolutionary phone apps, I find this one to be particularly amazing. My co-worker emailed this link to me. To me, this app exemplifies the famous quote attributed to Einstein, "Imagination is more important than knowledge".

 

Anyone wanna nominate other phone apps as being particularly noteworthy?

[chrisd]

Wow, that is pretty amazing. I'll bet it won't be long before they'll be translating Japanese, Chinese, etc.

Unfortunately, I don't have one to nominate that compares, but they all seem brilliant to me. Heck, I still marvel at the GPS in my cell phone. My son and I took a wrong turn in Amarillo, and immediately the GPS told us, "In 800 feet, make a U-turn." Sure enough, just up ahead, was a dirt U-turn.

[Pilgrim]

Wow, that is pretty amazing. I'll bet it won't be long before they'll be translating Japanese, Chinese, etc.

Unfortunately, I don't have one to nominate that compares, but they all seem brilliant to me. Heck, I still marvel at the GPS in my cell phone. My son and I took a wrong turn in Amarillo, and immediately the GPS told us, "In 800 feet, make a U-turn." Sure enough, just up ahead, was a dirt U-turn.

 

Big deal. Anywhere in panhandle Texas is a dirt u-turn!

 

Pilgrim

[Quinn]

My son was showing me that his phone will tell you the constellations by just pointing it at the night sky and tilting it up and down. No idea how it knows where it's being pointed. My GPS doesn't know which way I'm pointed until I start moving.

 

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[Selden]

Anyone wanna nominate other phone apps as being particularly noteworthy?

Back in September, while listening to NPR, I heard Austin Seraphin, who is blind, talking about the experience of "seeing" the sun set through an iPhone app, Color Identifier, that speaks the names of colors.

 

Austin recorded the experience of "watching" the sunset through an iPhone: Autumnal Equinox 2010 Broadcast. I put on headphones and got sucked in; I couldn't pull myself away for the entire half hour of Austin's broadcast.

[leikam]

My favorite phone app is one where I push a couple buttons and it lets me talk in real time to anybody in the world who runs the same app. It's pretty amazing.

[ESokoloff]

This past week I had a service call on a new HVAC installation & one of the items the customer complained about was a whistling (leaking) duct. He claimed he could tell me how loud it was in decibels.

I was impressed that he took the effort to obtain a sound meter.

Then it dawned on me..... Theres an App for that

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

My son was showing me that his phone will tell you the constellations by just pointing it at the night sky and tilting it up and down. No idea how it knows where it's being pointed. My GPS doesn't know which way I'm pointed until I start moving.

 

Sounds like my brother's phone, which has (in addition to GPS) an on-board solid-state compass and a tilt sensor. With the GPS it knows its exact location; with the compass and tilt sensor, it knows its exact orientation. Taken together, it enables a "virtual" view of the world around you, handy for things like the constellation identifier you describe, or for ID'ing landmarks, buildings, businesses, or exact addresses.

[chrisd]

Big deal. Anywhere in panhandle Texas is a dirt u-turn!

Pilgrim

 

Funny, now that you mention it, there are dirt u-turns every 800 feet or so in the panhandle. At least the GPS realized I was lost before I did. Although, I'm usually the last to know such things in any case. Oh well, it's a cool phone nonetheless.

[beemerman2k]

My son was showing me that his phone will tell you the constellations by just pointing it at the night sky and tilting it up and down. No idea how it knows where it's being pointed. My GPS doesn't know which way I'm pointed until I start moving.

 

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Yes, there are a few products that do this, I have pUniverse on my iPhone. It's very entertaining and educational.

[RichEdwards]

Yes, the iPhone 4 is a remarkable device. You can imagine my surprise when I got my latest issue of Consumer Reports and they did not list the iPhone 4 as the best choice for AT&T subscribers even though the AT&T subscribers themselves picked it as the best choice. (My guess is that most of these subscribers would not be AT&T customers except for the fact that the iPhone 4 is not available anywhere else.) The iPhone 4 is the best selling cell phone in North America (the Blackberry still has world dominance) and there's good reason for that.

Sometimes Consumer Reports is flat wrong. I remember years ago when they did not recommend the Nikon F2 as a good choice for a camera. At the time, nearly every professional photographer shooting in 35mm used an F2. They said it was too heavy.

[tallman]

My favorite phone app is one where I push a couple buttons and it lets me talk in real time to anybody in the world who runs the same app. It's pretty amazing.

 

Best App

[Bob Palin]

The iPhone 4 is the best selling cell phone in North America (the Blackberry still has world dominance) and there's good reason for that.

Nokia makes 4 of the top 6 selling phones in the world including #1 with the 1100.

 

I wouldn't own an iPhone if it was the last phone in the world! (would you?)

 

p.s. Death to Fruity!

[RichEdwards]

My iPhone is the best electronic device I have ever owned. I think most owners/users would agree. AT&T is a weak service provider and the fact that millions buy the iPhone despite knowing that they will be getting a crappy service provider says lots about the usefulness of the device.

By the way, I get great reception on my iPhone here in Tampa. I would guess that my phone would not work in Torrey, Utah.

[Bob Palin]

I would guess that my phone would not work in Torrey, Utah.

It would work fine, AT&T is using somebody else's tower (the big flag pole at the Wonderland hotel I think). As of Feb some time we will have A&T 3G service, they bought out Alltel and are upgrading their towers, I will probably get and Android phone of some sort to replace my Alltel Blackberry which won't work any more.

[Mike]

Sometimes Consumer Reports is flat wrong.

 

I agree. It can be a good source of objective facts (sometimes), but they regularly blow it. I've subscribed on and off over the years. Every time I spend the money, I, at some point, end up disappointed.

 

In the case of the iPhone 4, they did the public a service by upping the pressure on Apple for a design flaw that affected quite a few users (Personally, I could never replicate the problem). Nonetheless, I agree with a friend who recently described the iPhone as a device that is one of the most revolutionary developments in in communication since the Gutenberg press.

 

Most of the apps I have are not high on the "wow" scale, but these are my favorites:

 

-Myriad news apps: The best seems to be USA Today's app. A lot of information for free.

 

-The Weather Channel: Complete weather information for anywhere in the world in your hand.

 

-JotNot Pro: An app that permits you to use your phone camera as a scanner to convert and store (or send) images as .pdf files.

 

-TomTom Navigator: I also have the Navigon navigator. TomTom is better, and functions as well as any stand-alone GPS I've owned.

 

-Amazon Mobile: I do 90% of my non-grocery shopping using my iPhone. It also has a barcode scanner function, permitting you to comparison shop any item you find in a store.

 

-Skype: Permits me to call anyone from anywhere in the world for a negligible cost, as long as I'm in range of a wifi network.

 

The iPhone has revolutionized my little world.

[RichEdwards]

It would work fine...

 

Another good reason for me to return to beautiful Torrey.

[chrisolson]

Interesting (long) article in the WSJ

 

Your apps are watching you

 

I don't have one, but for those of you who have smart phones, how many of your apps disclose they send info to 3rd parties?

 

 

[skinny_tom (aka boney)]

Yes, the iPhone 4 is a remarkable device. You can imagine my surprise when I got my latest issue of Consumer Reports and they did not list the iPhone 4 as the best choice for AT&T subscribers even though the AT&T subscribers themselves picked it as the best choice. (My guess is that most of these subscribers would not be AT&T customers except for the fact that the iPhone 4 is not available anywhere else.) The iPhone 4 is the best selling cell phone in North America (the Blackberry still has world dominance) and there's good reason for that.

Sometimes Consumer Reports is flat wrong. I remember years ago when they did not recommend the Nikon F2 as a good choice for a camera. At the time, nearly every professional photographer shooting in 35mm used an F2. They said it was too heavy.

 

The iPhone, in general is a great consumer device. Personally, I'll never own another one. But that's me.

 

What people don't understand is that Consumer Reports is not Professional Reports or I Know What the Hell I'm Doing Reports. The bulk of the public is ignorant about a lot of things and Consumer Reports exists to make it so they don't have to study up on a specific segment of the market so they can buy a new product. They consistently pick better-than-average models that don't break the bank as their best buys, that will work very well for the majority of the people who buy it.

[Ohio48]

My son was showing me that his phone will tell you the constellations by just pointing it at the night sky and tilting it up and down. No idea how it knows where it's being pointed. My GPS doesn't know which way I'm pointed until I start moving.

 

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Google Sky?? I have that on my HTC Droid. Pretty cool.

[marcopolo]

...You can imagine my surprise when I got my latest issue of Consumer Reports and they did not list the iPhone 4 as the best choice for AT&T subscribers even though the AT&T subscribers themselves picked it as the best choice...

 

If I recall, that had to do with the antenna/reception issue which Consumer Reports highlighted and resulted in them not recommending iPhone4.

[tallman]

All of the above is very good. but if memory serves, at the UN, none of the fancy phones worked so apps be damned.

I do remember 2 basic phones from Florida working in the new to them environs...

[ESokoloff]

....none of the fancy phones worked so apps be damned.....

 

Tim, did you look at the link that James posted?

Unplugged (no internet or phone connection required)

 

I'm sure it's the same with most previously downloaded Apps.

[RichEdwards]

All of the above is very good. but if memory serves, at the UN, none of the fancy phones worked so apps be damned.

I do remember 2 basic phones from Florida working in the new to them environs...

 

Yes, I do wish that my small computer/5 megapixel camera/voice recorder/gps

/1000+ song player/50,000 app device came with Verizon service. But only about 5% of my use of this device is for making phone calls. So I'm happy.